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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22890283">The Others</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhianthiAlritak/pseuds/RhianthiAlritak'>RhianthiAlritak</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Plural Crowley AU [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman &amp; Terry Pratchett</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Regression/De-Aging, Author has a Dissociative Disorder, Autistic Aziraphale (Good Omens), Basically just a lot of OC introductions honestly, Crowley (Good Omens) Has OSDD-1B, Crowley (Good Omens) has ADHD, Crowley Has Chronic Pain (Good Omens), Dissociation, Genderfluid Crowley (Good Omens), If you want representation you've gotta write it yourself, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Other, Plural Crowley (Good Omens), but not in a kink way, in a mental health way, loosely based on my own brain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:15:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>850</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22890283</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhianthiAlritak/pseuds/RhianthiAlritak</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it's not enough just knowing one person. Sometimes you have to know everyone.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aziraphale (Good Omens) &amp; Original Character(s), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Plural Crowley AU [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1645378</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Knowing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello! This is gonna be a long fic! Alters are loosely based on my own. Plural experiences are vast and diverse, for my purposes Crowley has OSDD-1b, the same disorder as myself. Note that this is not representative of all systems.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     There’s a saying that humans have. Quite a few of them, actually, but there’s one in particular that stands out to Aziraphale as he watches his partner splash about in the shallows of the Atlantic: You don’t really know a person until you’ve lived with them.</p>
<p>     The intended meaning of course, is that people don’t always behave the same at home as they might when they think of themselves as guests. That it’s wholly possible to know someone for months or years or decades or, in the case of two immortal beings, sixty centuries, without actually knowing them. </p>
<p>     And really, he does know Crowley. But it’s become apparent that despite his knowing Crowley and his knowing of the others who inhabit the same corporation and share an essence with his demon, his beloved; he doesn’t really know them.</p>
<p>     Not the way he knows Crowley. There’s a trust he shares with Crowley that he doesn’t share with the others. And until recently, Crowley went out of his way to avoid bridging that gap. To avoid even acknowledging the others. </p>
<p>     But now, now they live together. Now they’re married. And Aziraphale finds himself wanting to understand. He makes of note of it to himself, tucks it away in the back of his mind for later, and goes to join his husband in the water.</p>
<p>     After all, he’s spent six thousand years getting to know Crowley. Surely he can get to know the others in less time than that.</p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Crawly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A snake, a demon, a lead balloon. Or: Crawly and Crowley are two different people.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Some of these will be longer than others purely bc the alter OCs are more developed. Crawly, is not particularly developed.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s an unreasonably and unseasonably warm day. The kind of day that people <em>think</em> they want until they actually get it, at which point they realise exactly how horrible it really is. The sun is out, its rays beating down on all things. The air is damp and humid and just all around unpleasant in a way that speaks of past rainstorms and the inevitable ones of the future.</p><p>          And Crowley, is a snake. </p><p>Or at least Aziraphale assumes the snake shaped demon laying in the grass is Crowley. It can be difficult to tell. Nahas, for instance, spends the majority of her time as a serpent, though she usually sticks to an expected (and frighteningly large) size, and the snake in the grass isn’t even beginning to approach that. But it’s not really <em>acting</em> like it’s Crowley. For one, it’s not going out of its way to curl up around Aziraphale and soak in his warmth, something Crowley has repeatedly cited as ‘the only real benefit to that shape’. <em>This</em> snake is sitting in the garden, his head swaying slightly in a vaguely comforting, familiar way. He turns his head, visibly fighting the tell-tale wobble Aziraphale is so familiar with. And that’s when it clicks. This isn’t Crowley, it can’t be. The eyes are wrong. The pupils are too sharp, too thin. They’re not the focused orange-gold of Nahas, either. No, this is someone else.</p><p>Well then, if he wants to get to know the others, there’s no better time for an introduction. </p><p>Aziraphale stands up and walks over to the snake. He kneels down in the grass beside him. He tilts his head at Aziraphale and flicks out his tongue. “Angel,” says the snake.</p><p>“Hello there,” says Aziraphale. “Have we been introduced? Formally, I mean.”</p><p>“Ha!” says the snake, throwing back his head. “Have we been introduced, he saysss! Oh, we’ve met. ‘Lead balloon’ ring any bells?”</p><p>Aziraphale furrows his brow. Lead balloon. Lead… balloon. <em>Lead balloon</em>. He hesitates, bites his tongue a couple times, and then decides to take a guess. “Crawly?”</p><p>“Yup,” says the snake, with a popping noise that shouldn’t be possible without lips but that Crawly manages anyway. He moves closer and wraps himself around Aziraphale’s wrist. “Lead balloon, flaming sword, and then ‘well that name can’t be right it’s not <em>me</em>’. S’right. Not his name, s’mine.”</p><p>“I see,” says Aziraphale, though he doesn’t really see at all. Crawly grins at him, as much as a snake <em>can</em> grin. </p><p>“No, you don’t. But that’s fine. It’s the accepting that’s important, not the understanding.” Crawly tilts his head to the side. “S’a bit like, if someone called you Gabriel, yeah?” He laughs sharply at the way Aziraphale’s face scrunches up in abject disgust. “It’s not <em>your</em> name, but it is <em>someone’s</em>. And that someone probably likes their name a great deal. But just because <em>they</em> like it, doesn’t mean you’ve got to use it for yourself.”</p><p>Aziraphale nods, though he still doesn’t really get it. There’s a lot of things he doesn’t really “get” about Crowley and the others, just as he’s sure there’s many things about himself that don’t particularly make much sense to the demon. Differences are fine, good even. There’s no need to understand everything about one another. The only thing that matters really, is their ability to respect those differences and communicate about them. (Which admittedly is something Aziraphale had a great deal of difficulty with until recently, he’s working on it.) They help each other, more than he had initially realised. And so maybe he doesn’t understand, but he’s more than willing to learn.</p>
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